Palm Beach County will go it alone in its fight against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.
County Commissioners, like Mack Bernard, voted Tuesday night to opt out of a class-action lawsuit involving more than 30,000 municipalities around the nation.
"I want us to litigate this and to go after every one of those people who caused this damage to the residents of Palm Beach County."
The county will proceed with its own suit, filed by attorney Jim Ferraro.
"It was one of the hardest hit, if not the hardest hit county in the entire country."
He says Palm Beach County stands to get more money by filing its own suit, rather than splitting a potential class-action settlement with the other communities, most of which were not hit as hard by the opioid epidemic.
County leaders say they need to recover money spent on first responders dealing with overdose victims, addiction treatment and NARCAN.
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